


After the Storm

by evilgemini



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/F, F/M, Post-War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-14
Updated: 2018-07-14
Packaged: 2019-06-10 07:44:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15286959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evilgemini/pseuds/evilgemini
Summary: Nela is a girl from a noble family in the Si Wong desert. With that much money and a good reputation her life seems to be perfect - but she doesn't see it that way and when things get too overwhelming for her, she runs away. Can she make it in a world outside the desert that she's never been to before?





	After the Storm

hello <3  
thank you for clicking on this! its my first time writing a fanfic in english so i just wanna say that this is going to be more of an experiment i think?? i just want to make this fanfic a little bit lighthearted and easygoing because im not sure what im able to pull off yet, so yea, im gonna go with a cute and carefree concept with this one! also please remember that english is not my first language and im sorry if i have any typos in the chapters, im rlly trying to work on that. but anyway i hope i did a good job n you enjoy this! <3

\---

_Dear mother and father,  
if you‘re reading this, then I‘ve sucessfully escaped from home. I am sorry to leave you, but I can‘t do this anymore. I‘ve heard what you are planning to do, but I can‘t go along with it. I know you wouldn‘t allow me to break our traditions like that so I took the first chance I got to get away from this place. I am sorry but this letter means goodbye. Maybe we‘ll see each other again, but I don‘t think it will be soon._

_Yours, Nela_

With those words she said goodbye to her family, friends and previous life. After all those years of overly protective and strict upbringing and isolation from the world, she finally made her decision. It was always a dream of hers to explore the world and make her own decisions without anyone policing her and watching her every move. This dream could now finally come true. After all, there was nothing standing in her way anymore. She freed herself.

♥♥♥

»Where should I put the tray, mister Iroh?«, she asked loudly while balancing the the dirty cups the customers left behind on the tray she was carrying. It was Nela‘s first week working at the Jasmine Dragon and she still hadn‘t figured out everything. But that her first week wouldn‘t go that well was pretty obvious, after all she didn‘t have a job her whole life. Coming from a noble family, she never needed to.

That‘s why she was so lucky that she was accepted at working in this tea shop. When she first asked the owner if he needed any employees, he said that he didn‘t really need any help and even recommended a few other shops where she could try and get a job. She would‘ve left him alone, if she didn‘t already try the other options. She saved the Jasmine Dragon for last, since it was the biggest tea shop and getting a job would be harder there. But being overly honest when she panicked was always a bad habit of her – so in the end, she ended up telling him almost everything. That she had to flee from the desert, that she had nowhere to go and that she didn‘t know anything about Ba Sing Se. However, she left out the part that she came from a rich family and ran from home, afraid that he would think it would be best for her to return home and refuse to help her.

So there she was – standing in common earth kingdom clothing, working in a tea shop. She was everything she never expected. But it wasn‘t like she didn‘t like it. Actually, maybe that was where she belonged after all.

»Just put the tray near the sink, as always«, he answered while boiling his jasmine tea. After the shop closed, the first thing he always did was make himself some tea. He just needed it after a long day of work.

»Also, I told you it‘s fine if you just call me Iroh«, he added, before he started sipping on his tea. Nela just smiled and nodded. He really had a talent to make people feel comfortable. But his kindness was a thing that she could only be thankful for, after all, if it wasn‘t for him, she would now still be homeless and lost. Though others rejected her and didn‘t care for her sob story, he showed her understanding and helped her. She knew she couldn‘t take it for granted.

»I‘m going to wash the dishes!«, she announced and turned to the sink to start working. Iroh nodded and stood up to put his empty cup into the sink.

»Nela, can I ask you to stay a bit longer today? My nephew is coming over and I think I will need some help.« 

»Of course! I‘m always happy to help«, she answered with a bright smile on her face.

♥♥♥

»I think he‘s coming!«, Nela said enthusiastically and ran over to the counter to get her paper and pen. She wanted to seem professional when she would take the order from Iroh‘s nephew, since she wouldn‘t really want him to think it was a bad idea to employ her.

As she watched him approach the tea shop she also noticed four people following him. Though she didn‘t recall Iroh saying anything about anyone other than his nephew she decided not to question it and just wait for the quests to arrive. 

But she couldn‘t help getting curious about those people. They didn‘t look like simple Ba Sing Se citizens that visited the shop. Maybe they were travellers?

She put all those thoughts aside when she saw them walk through the door. Now was not the time to think what those people did or were, her job was to serve them. She didn‘t want to embarrass herself infront of them, so she walked over to their table as soon as they sat down.

»Welcome to the Jasmine Dragon! What can I bring you?«, she greeted them, putting on the friendliest smile she could manage. She tried not to make it obvious how curious she was about them as she took their orders. And although she wanted to start a conversation with them, she just didn‘t know what to say. Everything she could‘ve said just seemed so strange to her. She just didn‘t know how to start conversations with people she never met before and she didn‘t want to make them feel awkward, so she decided to say nothing and just do her job. This decision depressed her a little since she was really curious but it was the only option she could‘ve chosen.

»You‘re new in Ba Sing Se, aren‘t you?«, a boy suddenly asked her. When she looked over to him, she saw that it was the one with the bald head and the tatoos that looked like arrows. 

»Uh… Yes, I am«, she answered, nodding.

»Really? What‘s your name?«

»I‘m Nela«, she said, trying as hard as she could so she wouldn‘t sound awkward. It was a little hard when five people were staring at her at the same time but she tried to look as friendly as possible. »And who are you?«

»Well, my name is Aang. Those are my friends Toph, Sokka, Katara and Zuko. Oh and by the way, Zuko is Iroh‘s nephew! But I think you already knew that.« She looked around at Aang‘s friends and then turned to him again while he was still grinning at her.

»It‘s really nice to meet you and your friends, Aang.« She smiled at him again, not knowing what to say. She really wasn‘t good at keeping conversations going. So she secretly hoped that one of them would say something so it wouldn‘t get awkward between them. And luckily, the boy named Sokka opened his mouth to say something. 

»Nela, are you really from that far away that you don‘t recognize who he is?«, he asked and leaned a little bit forward while having a suspicious expression on his face. She never would have thought that those words could make her situation any more awkward. Of course she didn‘t know who she was facing. She spent her whole life in the same building and only learned about historical figures who were relevant to the Si Wong desert and her culture. He couldn‘t know this of course, but she still got really overwhelmed with this question.

»I‘m sorry, I don‘t really know…«, was all she could manage to say. When she got overwhelmed she started to stutter and that was the last thing she wanted to do now.

»Sokka, you can‘t just ask people something like that!«, the girl with the long brown hair said and looked strictly at him. »I‘m sorry about my brother. He let his popularity go to his head apparently and now he expects everyone to instantly recognize who we are.« She hit him lightly on his shoulder and earned an offended glance from Sokka.

»It‘s okay, I just… don‘t know much about the outside world, I‘m sorry.« Katara shook her head and looked at Aang.

»Well, our Aang is the avatar and Zuko is the fire lord.«

Suddenly everything became pretty clear to Nela. She clapped her hands against her mouth so she wouldn‘t let out a gasp and looked anxiously at the two boys who she just learned were the avatar and fire lord. A part of her couldn‘t really believe that she was in the presence of such important people while another part of her just felt obliged to bow to them, like her parents always taught her to.

Still confused at what she should do, she just stood there with a blushing face. It was all so embarrasing for her. She wondered how silly she must‘ve looked.

»I‘m sorry, it‘s just that I really didn‘t see much of the world yet. I haven‘t even seen much of Ba Sing Se yet.« Nela hung her head a little, clearly ashamed by her situation. 

»That‘s nothing you should be embarrassed about«, someone said, and when she turned to look who it was, it turned out to be Zuko. His voice was so much softer than she expected but it made her feel a little bit better about her lack of knowledge. 

»He‘s right! People probably don‘t talk much about us where you‘re from.« Aang clearly tried to make her feel less dumb, so she couldn‘t help but smile at him. 

»Yeah, you both are probably not that relevant anyway«, Toph said teasingly and chuckled at her own words. 

»Anyway«, Aang continued, still a little bit offended by Toph‘s comment. »I have an idea! How about we show you Ba Sing Se then?«

»Really? You would do that?« Surprised at the offer, she looked at him with big eyes. Except for Iroh she didn‘t know anyone in Ba Sing Se who could show her the town and she didn‘t want to ask Iroh for something like this. He already helped her enough.

»Yes, I mean it! We can go right now.«

»I don‘t know what to say… Thank you!« Nela nodded and smiled happily.

»But let me bring your tea first.«

♥♥♥

»So where are you from exactly?«, Katara asked as ahe walked besides Nela. The sun was already starting to set and created a beautiful red and orange sky so Nela couldn‘t keep her eyes off it, but was forced to look at the girl besides her when she asked her the question.

»I come from the Si Wong desert. I don‘t know if you‘ve already been there.«

»Oh, well.« Katara started chuckling awkwardly. »Let‘s just say that we had some tough experiences with the desert.«

»I‘m sorry about that… but it‘s also really dangerous travelling there by yourselves! What were you doing there?«

»We kind of visited the Wan Shi Tong library… you must‘ve heard of it, right?« 

Nela looked at Katar, with shock in her eyes. Of course she knew about the library but she also knew that it was sunk in and unaccesable! They were travveling with the avatar, yes, but he couldn‘t have dug up the whole library, now could he?

»This is not really something you visit! How did you even find that place?!« Clearly amazed by Katara‘s story, she didn‘t even notice how her voice got louder. But Katara just chuckled in return and looked at Aang.

»I guess you never saw a flying Bison?«, she asked but she already knew the answer.

»Of course not! But that doesn‘t explain how-«

»We‘re there!«, Sokka suddenly shouted and cut her off without noticing.

»Sorry, I‘ll tell you about it another time. Now come and look at this!« 

Katara took her hand and dragged her over to a fountain which was surrounded by laterns. She noticed something glowing in the water an when she got closer to it, she noticed that there were lights swimming in the fountain. The darkness that meanwhile came over the city was perfect for a place like this. It really showed off it‘s beauty.

»This place is called the Firelight Fountain«, Zuko explained. 

»That‘s beautiful! I‘ve never seen anything like this.«

»Ha, yeah, me neither«, Toph replied and laughed at her own joke. Katara must have noticed the slight confusion on Nela‘s face.

»Toph is blind«, she said quietly. Nela clapped her hands before her mouth and looked at her apologetically.

»I totally haven‘t noticed… I feel so dumb, I‘m sorry«, she whispered back but Katara just shook her head.

»Just try to remember it, she‘s a little bit sensitive about this.« Even though she was confused why she would make jokes about it if it was a sensitive subject, she figured it would be best if she just took Katara‘s advice and didn‘t question it. Maybe that was her way of coping with it.

Not wanting to waste her time thinking about someone other‘s problem, she looked at the fountain again. For now, she just wanted to enjoy the view and forget about everything that was bothering her.

♥♥♥

Happy with how things turned out, Nela causually walked down the road to her home. After getting the job in Iroh‘s tea shop she finally had enough money to rent a room to stay in. Even though she took a bit of money from home she was amazed and shoked at how expensive things turned out to be. So it was no surprise when she noticed that she didn‘t have enough money for shelter.

She tought about how lucky she was to have met those people. They were so nice even though they didn‘t know her and even showed her the city. She couldn‘t help but grin like a little girl who just got gifted a toy she wanted for a long time. They even promised to visit her again! Even though she didn‘t know them for very long, they must have been the first friends she‘s ever made.

The city was so beautiful. So different from the commune she lived in. She wondered how other places outside of Ba Sing Se might look like and what beauty her parents hid away from her. After that thought crossed her mind her face instantly got sad. She knew that they probably just wanted the best for her but that wasn‘t the right way to show it. After all, they‘ve basically isolated her from the world and she missed out on so much. Would she ever be able to catch up?

She knew that she shouldn‘t let those thoughts get her down but it was hard for her to controll her feelings. Even if she tried to ignore them, they would eventually blow up in her face, so maybe it was the best thing for her to just let herself feel those bad things and then try to get over them as soon as possible. 

While she was overthinking her situation she happened to lay her eyes on a new poster on the board where there were usually only wanted posters. But the face on the new poster – it was her own.

_This must be a mistake, right?_

She came closer to the poster to look at the picture. There it was, the face of a young girl from the desert with dark brown eyes and dark, curly hair. It really was her. But who would make a wanted poster of her? Her parents? Would they really go that far? Without thinking twice she just ripped it off and put it in her pocket. She would read it at home and figure out what to do. But what if there was more? The anxiety slowly built up in her chest and she tried hard not to shiver. Unsure of what she should think about all of this she started to get going again. She would figure something out. That was for sure. At least that was what she kept telling herself over and over as she anxiously walked the way to her home.


End file.
